Newspaper Roundup: USAT; McClatchy; Journal Comm

– USAT cuts 20 newsroom jobs: While Gannett’s flagship has been spared much of the company’s heavy job cuts of the past few months, USA Today will lay off 20 positions, or 5 percent of its 450-person newsroom. This is USAT’s first major round of job cuts since 45 employees were jettisoned last November.

— McClatchy October online revs gain 12.4 percent: October was another painful month for the Sacramento, CA-based publisher, which said a 12.4 percent year-over-year boost in online ad revs wasn’t enough to offset the 17.8 percent drop in total revenue and falling ad revenues in general, which were down 20.4 percent. The figures were in line with the year-to-date figures, which saw McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) revs fall 15.5 percent and ad dollars decline 17.4 percent. Online ad sales during that period were up 10.9 percent. October’s ad troubles were blamed mostly on the lack of job ads, which were down for both print and online.

— Journal Comm interactive revs grow meager 2 percent: The Milwaukee media company posted fairly mixed results in October as total revenues for its newspaper and local TV division declined 2.8 percent to $38.02 million. Online revs for its Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, its only daily, posted a small 2 percent gain, coming in at $1.29 million. However, with advertising at the paper down 17.4 percent and classifieds dropping 32.9 percent year-over-year last month, the online growth doesn’t look so bad.